Tiger Woods acknowledges the cheers after completing his final round of The Players Championship. / Debby Wong, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - After winning The Players Championship on Sunday on the treacherous Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass for his 78th career PGA Tour victory, Tiger Woods was asked about the state of his game.

"It's getting better," Woods said.

Food for thought for the rest of the PGA Tour, and it might be hard to digest.

"He's playing unbelievable golf right now," said Brandt Snedeker, who played the first two rounds of The Players with Woods. "You can tell as players when a guy is flushing it or not. He has an innate ability to flush it all the time. Even when he is hitting it left or right he's still hitting it in the center of the clubface whenever he wants to. You never count out guys like that.

"From what I saw the last couple of days he's been putting great. That's scary. The way he hits it and with his short game, that's hard to beat."

Here are some of the numbers the world's No. 1 has compiled to now:

4: Victories in 2013. This is the earliest Woods has ever reached four wins in a season.

7: Victories in his last 21 PGA Tour stroke-play events.

52 of 56: Conversion rate when Woods has at least a share of the 54-hole lead.

78: Career PGA Tour victories. Sam Snead, with 82, is No. 1 on the list.

300: PGA Tour starts (including as an amateur). Woods also won in his 100th and 200th PGA Tour starts.

Here are a few more numbers over the course of Woods' 300 PGA Tour starts, including as an amateur:

78 wins (26%), and 28 seconds in his career.

123 top-3s, which is 41% of his starts, and 182 top-10s, 61% of his starts.

And he says he's getting better?

"The way I was playing at Augusta, I was shaping the golf ball both ways and controlling my trajectory, and I thought that was important coming into this week," Woods said. "And it ended up being one of the key factors because I missed the golf ball in all the right spots."

Woods' next two appearances are expected to be Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village, May 30-June 2, and the U.S. Open at Merion, June 13-16.

Muirfield Village is a Woods favorite - like Torrey Pines, Doral and Bay Hill, on which he has won multiple times, including this year - and he will be going for his sixth victory in the Memorial.

Merion will be new territory - "I've never played Merion," Woods says - but he showed a potential winning strategy with his victory at TPC Sawgrass: Rarely using the driver; playing 3-woods, 5-woods and irons off the tee; keeping the ball in play; shaping the ball; controlling distance and trajectory with his irons; making putts.

"I almost feel like he is playing Merion right now with all of the layups and the conservative shots and positioning," NBC's Johnny Miller said during The Players broadcast. "It looks like he is getting ready for it right now."

Merion will be a short - under 7,000 yards - tight layout that will require the kind of precision Woods showed this week. Perhaps the same game plan?

"It sounds good in theory. But I don't know," Woods said, with a laugh.

As for whether he really is getting better, many won't accept it until he finds the winner's circle again in a major.